Fission yeast mfr1 activates APC and coordinates meiotic nuclear division with sporulation

Abstract

Meiosis is the developmental program by which sexually reproducing diploid organisms generate haploid gametes. In yeast, meiosis is followed by spore morphogenesis. These two events are normally coordinated in such a way that spore formation is dependent upon completion of the meiotic nuclear divisions. Here we describe a meiosis-specific protein, mfr1, that is involved in this coordination. mfr1 is an activator of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC), which is necessary for the rapid degradation of the cdc13 cyclin at the end of meiosis II, prior to the formation of spores. An mfr1 null mutant completes meiosis II but remains with high levels of cdc13 and cdc2 kinase activity and has considerably delayed spore formation. By analogy with the mitotic cell cycle, where proteolysis and inactivation of cdc2 kinase are necessary to trigger mitotic exit and cytokinesis, we propose that at the end of meiosis rapid and timely proteolysis of cyclins is required to switch on the differentiation program that eventually leads to the formation of haploid gametes.